Ed Miliband will urge voters to boot out the heartless Tories as he sets out Labour’s vision of a fairer Britain for all.

The party leader is to deliver five major pledges to overturn the damage Prime Minister David Cameron has inflicted on the NHS, education and hard-pressed families with his ideology-led austerity drive.

And in a scathing attack on the PM’s war on the poor while lining the pockets of his rich chums with tax breaks, Mr Miliband will warn of the consequences of five more years of harsh Tory rule.

He is to say the choice on polling day is between “hope and optimism” offered by Labour and the “fear and pessimism” peddled by the Conservatives.

As he prepares for the speech, at the party’s Spring Conference in Birmingham, a report revealed ­Chancellor George Osborne will have raised taxes by £16billion this year – the majority coming from the VAT hike.

Five pledges: Ed Miliband is set to make keynote speech

The Labour leader will tell delegates: “Today we set out how we can replace a failed, tired, Government for the few with a Government that is truly for all the people of Britain.

“I urge the British people to choose optimism, to choose a country for the many, to choose the good of all, to choose hope and to recognise that when working people succeed, nothing can stop us as a country.

“The Tories will carry on putting in place their vision of how our country succeeds by stripping public services to the bone so they hit their target of spending back to levels not seen since the 1930s, before there was an NHS and when children left school at 14.

“Be in no doubt what that means: Education cut, the NHS ­undermined, social care ­devastated, lower living ­standards. This is not the future our great country deserves. This is not the future the great people of our country deserve. Britain can do better than this.”

The respected Institute for Fiscal Studies think-tank warned that Mr Osborne will have cut some taxes by £48billion but raised others by £64.3billion – an overall tax increase of £16billion. And the bulk is from the VAT hike, which hit the poor the hardest.

The IFS also warned the number of families losing child benefit will double in the next 10 years as more households are dragged into the higher rate of tax. Labour’s Treasury spokes­­man Chris Leslie MP said: “For all George Osborne’s claims, this damning report exposes the truth about his record. The biggest Tory tax rise was the VAT hike, which broke their election promise and hit working families and pensioners hard.

“Yet Osborne gave millionaires a tax cut by cutting the top rate.”

Ed Miliband's five pledges:

A strong economic foundation - based on balancing the books and cutting the deficit.

Higher living standards for working families - by cutting energy bills, raising the minimum wage and affordable childcare.

Controls on immigration - ensuring that new arrivals cannot claim benefits for two years.

An NHS with time to care- guaranteeing a GP appointment within 48 hours; 20,000 more nurses and 8,000 more GPs.

A country where the next generation can do better than the last - cutting tuition fees to £6,000 and a guaranteed apprenticeship for anyone who gets the grades.